Restoration of a broken back tooth

Years ago I had a huge filling in one of my back teeth (tooth number 6 my dentist calls it) leaving just a bare shell of the original tooth. Now the tooth has broken leaving a broken filling and a broken tooth. This isn't causing any pain but it's obviously in a bad condition and needs treatment. I am not biting on it and have a metal taste in my mouth all the time. My dentist tells me the best thing is to have a gold "restoration". which I think is also called an "inlay" but I may be wrong about that. i.e she removes the remains of the filling, takes a cast, has a gold partial-tooth sort of thing made to fit and then sticks it to the remains of the tooth.
This is free for me on the UK National Health Service.
What I would like to know is this - is this really the best treatment? because I can't help wondering if it's just what the government is willing to pay for because it's cheap or something? I can't afford to pay another dentist for a second opinion, please help, informed expert advice would be very appreciated. Thank you.

I am sorry but I would love to help but I can't really give you an opinion not knowing how much tooth structure is left. The one thing I can say is if in fact it is a gold inlay or onlay this is not an inexpensive restoration.

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